Monsters
by Imogen Bradford
Summary: Not long after graduating Hogwarts, Remus Lupin is assaulted for being a werewolf. This news sparks a debate within the wizarding world: is fear any justification for violence? Written for the Controversial Challenge on HPFC. Marauders Era. Read/Review?
1. Prologue

**A/N: **_I'm really excited to be starting this project, for the Controversial Challenge on HPFC. The topic that I was given is "_hate crimes._" This is something that I already care about, and I had a lot of ideas for the whole thing, so I decided to go for a full story rather than a one-shot. Happy reading!_

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

Hogsmeade lay sleeping that April night. It was rounding on midnight, and the doors and shutters of each cottage were shut tight against a lingering winter chill. A light breeze occasionally stirred the leaves, but the sound was soothing to any who had trouble sleeping. A stray cat meandered across the road, searching for mice and scraps of food to make a dinner for her kittens. The windows of the Three Broomsticks were alight, and the muffled sounds of music leaked from under the door, but this was a regular phenomenon. Everything was seemingly at peace, or so the villagers thought as they put down their books and turned off their bedside lamps. Surely this would be a night like any other, and hopefully one of the last cold nights of the season.

In only one alley of the village was anything amiss, but it was terrible enough to eclipse the serenity of that night when people would look back on it in times to come.

Remus Lupin left the house briefly, for the first time in nearly three days. Sirius had come down with a late season case of the flu, and Remus hardly left his bedside for even a moment. Between the vomiting, the fever, and the delirium, he didn't think it safe to leave his lover alone. Finally, an hour ago, Sirius' fever came down, and he convinced Remus that he would be alright for a little while on his own. After a small fuss, Remus had given in, and gone to the pub for some dinner. He picked up some chicken soup for Sirius, and was on his way home.

He left the Three Broomsticks, wanting to get home as soon as possible so the soup would still be hot when he got there. A couple of drunken men followed him out, but he didn't think much of it. He was too worried about Sirius to realize that they were following him, or that they had both drawn their wands. If he had been paying attention when he left the house, he would have remembered to bring his own wand, rather than leave it lying on the bedside table.

Remus turned a corner, taking a shortcut through a narrow, dim alley. The two men followed him, close behind.

"Oi, you!" The larger man called out. Remus took a nervous glance over his shoulder, and stopped.

"Er, yes?" He answered, not knowing what the two could possibly want from him. Perhaps they were lost, he reasoned. Or too drunk to Apparate. Or maybe he had dropped something.

"'Sit true yer a werewolf?" The large man slurred menacingly. "M'friend here pointed you out in th' bar. Tells me yer a werewolf, he did!"

Remus' eyes widened, and he began to back away. "I don't know what you're talking about, sir. Your friend must have had a few too many drinks…" He laughed nervously and began to walk away. "Now if you'll excuse me, I really must—"

BANG. Remus tripped as the Leg-locking curse hit him, and he fell to the ground. He felt a bruises forming on his hip and shoulder where they had hit the cobblestones.

"Tell the truth, yeh filthy beast!" The second man spat. He was shorter and squatter than the first, and had shot the Leg-locking curse. He continued to point his wand at Remus as he advanced. "I heard you was the one who goes up in the Shack every month and makes that horrible racket. It's 'cause yer changin' into a monster, isn't it?"

Remus didn't know how to respond to this. He didn't think that anyone in Hogsmeade knew about the real purpose of the Shrieking Shack; Dumbledore had made sure that the rumor had been spread around that the place was haunted, which accounted for all of the strange noises.

At Remus' silence, the squat man kicked him. Hard. "Answer the question!"

"Y-yes," Remus gasped, gritting his teeth.

The large man sneered at him. "Yer despicable. Trying to pass yerself off as one of us, yet prob'ly just waiting for the right moment to strike!"

"No!" Remus yelled back, earning him another kick to the ribs.

"Why would a monster like you wanna be close to th' rest of us?" the squat man taunted. "Yeh just wanna infect us or kill us, dontcha? That's what yeh like, innit?" He shot another spell at Remus, and a long gash appeared across his cheek. It began bleeding freely, with much more blood than the wound should have been producing. "Yeh like th' idea of makin' all the rest of us suffer, too?"

"No, really, I—" he protested, but the large man picked him up and slammed him against the alley's brick wall, knocking the wind out of him

"We don' wantcha here, filthy half-breed!" he snarled, spit flying into Remus' face. "We're honest people, we don' deserve to be tormented by the likes o' yeh!" He dropped Remus into a crumbled heap, and began kicking him against the wall.

Remus grit his teeth, trying his hardest not to give them the satisfaction of making him cry out in pain, although he desperately wanted to. It was all he could to try and cover his head with his arms as they continued to hurl insults at him. He had stopped paying attention to their words as his physical pain grew. The larger man was obviously too drunk to use his wand, but that didn't stop him from beating Remus with every ounce of brute strength that he had. The squat man was throwing a variety of curses and hexes, each more painful than the last. He didn't know how long he was curled in that alley, feeling bones finally crack and blood pour out of his wounds. After what seemed like an eternity, he felt the Leg-locking curse break, and he scrambled up as quickly as he could and attempted to run, ignoring the protest that his injuries were putting up. He had just made it to back to the High Street when the worst spell yet hit him: the Cuciatus Curse.

Everything exploded. Surely he was dying, being ripped cell from cell…He screamed at the top of his lungs, only willing it to end soon, one way or another…

The pain stopped abruptly, and he was lying in the middle of the street, panting. He opened his eyes just enough to see lights coming on in the windows, and a single, blurry figure running down the street towards him.

Before they reached him, he let his head drop back to the pavement, and everything went dark.


	2. Chapter 1 Helpless

**A/N: **_This chapter is all Sirius-centered! _

_In the last A/N, I wanted to get right into the story, so there were a couple of things that I didn't include. Pretty much, this takes place just after the Marauders graduated from Hogwarts, when they're about eighteen/nineteen-ish. I wanted to use this story as a vehicle for explaining how the wizarding world found out that Lupin is a werewolf, and thus why he can't get a job, etc. I'm also a subscriber to the "Lycanthropy is AIDS!" metaphor/JKR conspiracy theory, so I'll be playing with that. My pre-existing headcanon that he's gay just adds to that._

_Anyway, have fun, all you readers :)_

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Helpless<strong>

Sirius sat in the waiting room of St. Mungo's, absently pulling at a thread on the sleeve of his sweater. His head was still swimming and his stomach was threatening to make him sick at any moment, but he ignored it. All he could think of was Remus.

Two hours ago, he had been lying in bed, waiting for Remus to return from the Three Broomsticks. He was flipping through the _Daily Prophet_, taking in a few phrases here and there through his migraine, when someone began pounding in the front door. He ran down the stairs as fast as his nausea would permit, and opened the door to the young girl Rosmerta, who lived nearby. She was crying and nearly incoherent, but insisting that he come with her. A bit annoyed, he donned his cloak and picked up his wand before following her.

The pair made their way through Hogsmeade, towards the High Street. A small crowd came into view, all congregated a bit down from the Three Broomsticks. Sirius pushed his way to the front of the pajama-clad throng, stopping dead at the sight that met his eyes.

Off to the side, two thugs had been Stunned and were watched by a few of the older wizards. But in the center of the circle lay Remus Lupin: bloodied, bruised, and beaten. His chest heaved with too much effort for his shallow breaths, and some of his bones were bent at odd angles. He looked like a man who had been completely broken.

After a long minute of initial shock, Sirius dropped to his knees next to Remus, trying to staunch some of the bleeding, and looking desperately around at the crowd.

"What happened?" he cried, trying not to let his voice crack, but doing nothing about the tears streaming down his cheeks. "Who did this?"

A tall man stepped foreword, and pointed to the two Stunned men. "It was them…I don't know exactly what happened, but I heard a commotion outside in the street. Loud enough to wake me up, it was." He shook his head. "I came running out to see them torturing this poor boy, and tried my best to stop it…luckily some others had noticed, too, and came to help."

Sirius nodded, still shocked. "Can I use someone's Floo connection? To get to St. Mungo's?"

"You can use mine, of course," the tall man replied. He came over, and helped lift Remus. "It's just over this way."

"Right," Sirius replied, draping the other boy's arm around his shoulders and all but carrying him to the man's house. "It's going to be alright, Moony," He said in a low voice, more to himself. "You're going to be okay…You have to be okay…"

They entered the cottage, where the man's wife and children were waiting in the sitting room. "Arnold, what happened—?" she stopped in midsentence, her jaw dropping at the gruesome sight of Remus' injuries. She tried to hide the children's eyes, but they pushed her hands away, staring.

"Emma, we need the Floo powder," Arnold replied, and she nodded slowly, handing him a flower pot from on top of the mantle. He took it. "I'm going to take these two to St. Mungo's, but I'll be back soon, alright?"

She looked back at him, still wide-eyed. "What's going on out there?"

"I'll explain everything when I get back," he promised. "But right now, I have to get them to a Healer." He threw some of the emerald powder into the grate, which burst into bright green flames. He put one foot in, and helped Sirius maneuver himself into the fireplace with Remus before looking back at Emma. "Call for the Aurors?"

She made a frightened sound of assent before her husband yelled "St. Mungo's!" and all three men disappeared.

The Floo journey certainly didn't do anything for Sirius' stomach, and it took all of his effort not to vomit when they stepped out of the hearth at the magical hospital. They were immediately attended to, and in a whirl of Healers and Nurses, Remus was whisked away into an intensive-care ward. Sirius tried to follow, but was immediately denied—they would let him in "soon." Arnold, seeing that he wasn't really needed anymore, went home, but promised to come back in the morning.

And thus, Sirius found himself alone in the waiting room of St. Mungo's; with nothing to ease his anxiety except for some back issues of _Witch Weekly. _He had sent Patronuses to Prongs and Wormtail, but he didn't expect to hear back from them for hours—it was the middle of the night, and there was no way that they could be awake.

He leaned back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling. The plaster was cracked and peeling, forming shapes. It was almost like staring at cloud formations. There was a cat, and a rabbit. The cat was chasing the rabbit around and around, and then they both drifted off, replaced by an eagle…

"Padfoot!"

Sirius jerked awake, looking around. His eyes landed on James and Lily, who were standing in front of him.

"What happened, mate?" James asked, taking a seat next to him. They both looked quite tired, and had obviously dressed quickly. "Your Patronus woke us up, and we got here as fast as we could."

"What time is it?" Sirius asked groggily.

"About three-thirty," he smiled grimly. "Much earlier than I usually like to wake up."

Lily looked earnest. "What happened, Sirius? You said that Remus was hurt…?"

He put his head in his hands, the enormity of the situation hitting him as he tried to answer. "He was attacked." Sirius spoke to his knees, feeling a fresh wave of tears on the way. "I don't know why, but they got the men who did it." He still didn't look up, not wanting to see whatever looks of shock or horror were on his friends' faces. "It was…terrible. He's in an awful state. They beat him, the cursed him…I know that some of his bones were broken…They could have killed him, if no one stepped in!" The tears started falling again, and he felt Lily put a gentle arm around him in sympathy. He could feel her shaking.

The three sat quietly for a long while, with no one else in the room to disturb their worries. The sun was rising by the time anyone spoke.

"I think…maybe we ought to ask what's going on," James said slowly. "I can't stand sitting here and wondering. I'm sure we could just go in for a minute, to see that he's okay, right?"

The other two agreed, and he stood up, stretching a bit. "I'll be back in a second, then." He walked out of the waiting room, and Lily and Sirius both sat up a bit straighter. They waited a couple of minutes for James to return, and when he came back through the door, he wore an expression that was both sour and worried.

"They won't let us in," he stated, slumping back into a chair.

"Why?" Lily asked, eyes wide. "They can't still be healing him, can they?"

"No," James sighed. "At least I don't think so. There was only one person in the room. I think they're just monitoring him now, and doing some minor things."

"Then why…?"

"Because visiting hours haven't started yet," James said bitterly.

"What?" Lily was outraged.

"They're not letting_ anyone_ in?" Sirius jumped out of his chair, and James shook his head. Sirius began to pace. "But I brought him here! I'm his bloody boyfriend! And you're his two best mates!" He rounded back on James. "They seriously aren't letting anyone in?"

"That's what they said, Padfoot," James replied, trying to gently pull him back down into a chair. "We have to wait another two hours, until eight o'clock."

Sirius crossed his arms, shutting his eyes against the nausea that had strengthened when he stood up. He didn't dare open his mouth, but nodded curtly. James and Lily exchanged worried looks.

They sat in another tense silence, but it was broken only a few minutes later by a small crowd that had come through the front door. Sirius opened his eyes, and the three were all rather puzzled.

No one in the crowd seemed to be ill, and they were all rather loud. A few were carrying quills and parchment, while others had large cameras.

"What d'you recon that's about?" James asked, and his companions shrugged. A minute later, a receptionist ran into the room from the door leading to the wards, looking frazzled. He began conversing with a young witch with short curled-blonde hair and red spectacles, before leading the group further into the hospital. James stood up curiously, and followed. He peered through the window, before calling to Sirius and Lily, appalled. "Blimey, they're letting the whole lot into Moony's room!"

"What?" Sirius tore across the room and pressed his face against the glass. They were indeed letting the entire raucous group into the room. Before anyone could stop him, he ripped open the door and pushed in after them.

Remus lay in the single occupied bad at the far side of the ward, heavily bandaged but alive. However, Sirius couldn't be relieved by this image; not with his blood boiling at everything else that was happening around him. The photographers were all hovering around the bed, trying to get a shot of Remus' unconscious form. The blonde woman was wandering around the room, dictating notes to an acid- green quill in front of her. A few of the other reporters were interrogating the Healer, who looked as if he needed someone to rescue him. Sirius ran over to Remus' bedside, attempting to ward off the photographers as if they were flies.

"This is a sickroom, give him some space!" he shouted, trying to shield Remus as best he could as his temper rose. "Please, let him rest! He's been through enough today; he doesn't need all of this!"

Most of the news-people turned to look at him in annoyance, but the blonde woman sauntered over, a twisted smile on her lips. "And who may you be, young man?" She asked, her toothy smile revealing a couple of gold teeth. She roughly took his hand and shook it, but there was no warmth in the gesture. "I'm Rita Skeeter, reporter for the _Daily Prophet. _You've heard of me, of course?"

"Er—" Sirius angrily pried his hand from her clutches, but she cut him off before he could reply further.

"So how do you know young Lumpkin here?" She asked, obviously trying for an interview.

"His name is Lupin," Sirius replied coldly. "And it's none of your fu—"

"You two are the best of friends, aren't you?" Skeeter asked, gruffly pushing him into the chair at the bedside and conjuring one for herself. She leaner closer, resting her cheek on a talloned hand. "Does it come as a shock to you, the events of tonight?"

"Well, yeah, of course," Sirius huffed. He didn't want to talk about how he was feeling right now, especially not to this woman. James caught his eye from the doorway, looking worried.

"And do the motivations concern you?" Skeeter asked, sensing that she had lost his attention for a second.

"What motivations?" Sirius' attention snapped back to her, a tiny bit of his anger falling away, replaced by an anxious curiosity. "Why did they do this?"

"Oh, didn't you know?" Skeeter had an annoyingly superior look on her face. "The boy is a werewolf!"

Sirius' jaw dropped. "How did you—?"

"Scandalous, I know!" She grinned evilly. "We did some digging after his attackers gave their motivations, and it turns out that it's true! He has been since childhood! He was even allowed to go to Hogwarts in his condition, can you imagine?" She cackled. "Just wait for the parents to find out…oh the angry letters, I wish I could read them!"

Sirius was dumbfounded, his rage multiplied by ten at her gleeful expression. "They did this because he's a werewolf, and you don't find that…awful?" He could hardly contain himself. He stood quickly, knocking his chair over. Before he had a chance to go further, however, a higher-ranking Healer ran into the room.

"OUT!" He bellowed. "Everybody, out of here!" He began herding the journalists out of the ward, but James, Lily, and Sirius stubbornly stood at Remus' bedside. Sirius saw Rita Skeeter shut her quill and parchment inside of a red crocodile-skin hand back before the door closed behind her with a satisfying slam.

There was silence between the three teenagers while the Healers conversed in the back of the room. After a minute, when he was sure that they wouldn't be thrown out too, Sirius righted the chair that he had knocked over, and sat in it. He tuned out James, Lily, and his own sick feelings, wanting only to concentrate on Remus' cold hand in his own, and wait.


	3. Chapter 2 Spotlight

**A/N: **_Hey everyone! I'm sorry that this chapter took such a long time to put up. I feel awful, because I hate those fics that just take forever to update (I feel like that's happened to a lot of the things that I'm writing right now...) but I promise that I'll get back on track from here! I'm aiming for once a week, at least. I had midterms, college stuff, etc..._

_If it makes a difference, I got into my dream school, so that takes a lot of stress off!_

_I hope this chapter was worth the wait. I'm really interested in Rita Skeeter, and we will be seeing more of her._

_Drop me a review, let me know how it's going! I promise that you won't have to wait so long for the next chapter._

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Spotlight<strong>

"Really, Sirius, I'm fine," Remus protested, trying to walk independently of the other man's arm. His legs wobbled, but he kept himself upright. He didn't want to come off as weak as he strode up the front walk to the small cottage where they lived.

Sirius looked concerned, but didn't try to offer support again. Instead he badgered, "You just got out of the hospital this morning. The Healer said that you shouldn't push yourself…"

"Walking into my own house shouldn't constitute as 'pushing myself'," Remus retorted, just before he stumbled over the front step. Sirius reached out and caught him, then resolutely held him up as he opened the door and crossed the threshold. He didn't let go until he could safely deposit his charge in a battered, but comfortable, arm chair. Remus sank into it, embarrassed. "I was fine, Sirius."

"Of course you were…" His boyfriend replied absently, as he began getting the house back in order after their brief stint away. He was happy to see that Rosemerta had come by to feed the owl, and intended to give her a couple of sickles later on for the chore. He next went to look through the small stack of mail that had arrived in their absence. There were some advertisements, a bill for the rent, and a few get-well letters for Remus. There were three copies of the _Daily Prophet—_Friday, Saturday, and Monday. Sirius briefly skimmed over the latter two, but inhaled sharply when he saw the headline on Friday's edition.

"Remus!" He called. "You may want to see this…"

He hurried over to where Remus sat, and thrust the paper at him. His eyes widened as he read the headline, and the subsequent article:

**Local Villagers Unjustly Prosecuted for Defending Their Homes**

Below this were two mug shots of the thugs who had attacked Remus, looking surly yet proud of themselves, and leering at the camera. Sirius didn't like the self-righteous glint in their eyes, but looked down to continue reading.

_ The usually quiet village of Hogsmeade saw quite the commotion late Thursday night, _writes Rita Skeeter, special correspondent. _The locals reported hearing a scuffle in the street at around midnight, and a few of the braver men went out to see what the matter was._

_ "I was terrified," says Emma O'Malley, twenty-seven. "I didn't know what was going on, and my husband went out to check while I stayed inside with the children."_

_ What he found appeared to be a street fight, and he initially took pity on the boy, Remus Lupin, who appeared to have been the victim of an unprovoked attack. However, as I can now exclusively reveal, it seems that Mr. Lupin was not so innocent at all._

_ "He is a werewolf!" one of his assailants, Mr. Daniel Pierce, told me in an interview mere hours after the incident. "My buddy and I saw him prowling around the streets, looking dodgy. He looked like he was up to no good, and we confronted him. The little brat got cocky, and tried to attack us. We had no choice but to defend ourselves!"_

_ While the Magical Law Enforcement Squad is calling this an assault on Mr. Lupin, it is clear that they should really be devoting their efforts to properly thank Mr. Pierce and Mr. Smith for their efforts to make their community a safer place. _

_ Although Lupin was unavailable for comment, he was accompanied to St. Mungo's by a rather short tempered young man named "Serious" Black (and if his behavior towards yours truly is any reflection on Lupin, it does not bode well.) We here at the _Prophet _took (Continued on page 8, _WEREWOLF)

Remus waited for Sirius to reach the bottom of the paragraph before flipping to page eight in horror:

_the liberty of digging up a bit of information about Lupin's past. It appears that, against what many would assume to be common sense, Professor Dumbledore allowed the boy to attend Hogwarts, despite his dangerous condition. Over the years, he and his friends were notorious for pranks and rule-breaking, and it is a wonder that they were not expelled._

_ Given his record, it takes no stretch of the imagination to see that Lupin is a disturbed young man, and could not have been up to any good last night. Thankfully, Mr. Pierce and Mr. Smith were able to prevent him form doing any damage. _

_ They are scheduled for a hearing one week from today, and I can personally assure the public that you will be updated on this issue._

By the time Sirius was finished reading, he was furious. "That lying, bigoted little—" But he stopped at the wounded look on Remus' face. He took a calming breath, before wrapping his arms around the smaller boy, who was shaking slightly.

"I…I just can't believe this." He stammered after a minute, face pale. "Why would she do this? And how…how could she take their side?" He looked at Sirius in desperate disbelief. "How can she—the whole paper! How can they defend them?"

"I don't know," Sirius sighed. He knew that there was going to be more to this. He had a feeling of foreboding, like this was just the beginning of something big. However, he didn't think that Remus would be very receptive to that right now, and decided it better to simply comfort him. "Surely someone will write in about this, right? Some of the readers will know that this is wrong. Anyone in their right mind would side with you."

"Everyone is scared out of their wits right now," replied Remus hopelessly, and Sirius knew what he was thinking: Death Eaters, and Voldemort. They had become more powerful as time went on, and things had only been getting worse as of late. Remus buried his face in Sirius' shirt and continued, "They don't need to be afraid of a rampaging werewolf too. Next thing you know the villagers will be coming at us with torches and pitchforks."

"C'mon now," Sirius hugged him tighter. "Everyone around here knows us. And they _like _you. They'll know that this doesn't change who you are." He paused for a moment. "And besides, all those people came to rescue _you _from those thugs, didn't they?"

In spite of this encouragement, Remus still looked grim. "I bet they regret it now."

"Mooney, please…" Sirius tried, using his old nickname. "It's going to—" But one more look from Remus shut him up. It plainly stated that he wasn't going to be made to see the bright side right now, no matter what. Sirius gave up, for the time being, and held him in silence.


End file.
